So I know alot of you guys in here are hugely knowledgable in boxing and may have competed. Here is something that has always baffled me, and I would like you guys opinion in what this is. Regis vs Haney tonight, I thought it was 50/50, but Haney completely shut him out, it was another example of what I observed in the Smith Canelo fight. I thought Smith would cause problems with his jab, but canelo just took it away to the point I often think it was fishy. Same with Canelo against Kovalev, I did think that was fishy, but in reality, like Kovalev was pulling his punches but he wasnt, Canelo made it look that way. Same with Canelo Mayweather, the exciting thing was that this young explosive bull, bullies everyone and fights his fight, how can Mayweather handle this - but he made him look like a novice. The most recent example is Crawford vs Spence, spence was a solid puncher, as somone that has boxed a few times in amateur, I could see the power in his punchs, but against spence there was no power. So going back to my question, the fight tonight with Regis and Haney. Going in, it was a good fight, with Haney edging the skills, and Regis edging the power, both decorated proffesionals that have dedicated their life to the craft, and KNOW all there is to know about tactics, jabs, distance. But when the fight happned, Regis looked like a first timer. Finally, my best example of what I am trying to explain has just occured to me in Josh Kelly vs Avanasyan, one of my favourite fights. On the surface, Josh Kelly looked the goods, and was just as fast if not faster than Crawford. I thought Kelly could be something special judging from the eye test, and when I saw David beat him like he did, I really really thought he was a boogeyman. (David) That relentless pressure against such speed and crispy baguette punches was awesome to me, so when I heard he was fighting crawford and people where writing avansyan off I thought It was wierd, if he can pressure kelly, he can pressure crawford. But in the fight, it was a different david, his pressure did not work, he looked like a different fighter. That is the key word I think, really good fighters can CHANGE the style of their opponent? Kovalev had the most brutal offensive jab in the game, but against canelo is looked like he was pawing. Callum Smith was a rangy hard hitting good jab nightmare, but againt Canelo he just sat on the ropes and used no range Regis was a slick, move at the waist power puncher that many, myself included rated highly, Haney made him look like he had never boxed. I myself experienced it, I had 8 amateur fights and I won 5 by knockout WITH headguards, and lost 3 by points, I had a fight in Kettering UK, and my opponent and I waS hitting the pads at same time, I took this chance to try win mind games and hit them as hard as I could. I went to the ring first, and my opponent left through the fire exit on way to the ring, in front of his own crowd. I had that sort of power, and I was 10 stone it was not sluggish power, I was fast, sharp ect. There was a turkish fella in my gym who had over 30 fights, my weight but few inches smaller, and he would beat me around the ring, like my power did not exsist, but when he would fight the lad 10kg smaller than us both, but who was fighting in the england set up a couple of times, it looked like he was holding back, but he wasnt. Long story short, the best boxers can turn aggresive fighters into timid ones, power punches into arm punchers, bulls into sheep. It can be frustrating as it looks like your fighter is not trying, but in reality that is the most subtle art of boxing, to turn your opponent, no matter how skilled or fast they are - into a punching bag, as Haney showed tonight.
Levels. I'll just address Regis. Josh Taylor turned out to be fairly unspecial, and he beat Regis. Some guys have flash in the pan nights and they're gone. Only the most special of boxers can carry special for many years.
No secret, you just DKSAB. Nah decent post pal, that’s the beauty of the game when what we witness doesn’t stack up with what we think we know. Every day is a school day when you enrol into the school of life. Entrance fee: humility
The secret is also a famous book / film which I’d recommend anyone serious about enrolling in the school of life to read / watch.
Soccer Barca team got thumped by Milan in the Champions League final Brazil lost the world cup final 3-0 to france as defending champs Lost 7-1 at home in a world cup semi Spain smashed Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 Final Pats go undefeated all the way to the Superbowl and lose to the Giants It happens. BTW, Boxing, you'll get exposed worse than any other sport. Ad a good guy can have a bad night, and vice versa. Sometimes the other guy is just '' on '' See Buster Douglas vs Tyson and the odds in that fight. That says it all.
Appreciate your reply guys, and I agree. It is “levels”. But it’s those levels which was what I was trying to get at. It’s crazy how levels manifests itself in big fights, and how it only becomes apparent after the fight. Head to head, attribute to attribute it was close, but retrospective of that it was levels that was all that counted. I actually slightly favoured Spence vs Crawford but that was because I took into account all the attributes that mean nothing compared to levels. Boxing is levels
This The secret is that all the people hyping mediocre Taylor couldnt do it without previously hyping Prograis. Both Taylor and Prograis have been extremely overrated.
Haney is going to make for some big fights in the future, even at 147 where I don't feel he's going to be that guy in the division. This might be the Haney era, we'll see.
This Haney vs Prograis fight was the easiest prediction to make. You can’t make a prediction based on what you want to see. You got to make accordingly to how the situation actually is. Really Prograis got beat by Taylor who does not have that much power either and a good jab. Haney is better then Taylor. So what’s going to happen? I like Prograis but he has a fan friendly style. But not very fundamentally sound. Like at all.
Levels and styles, it can be hard to predict. I never saw Fury stopping Wilder like he did, I never thought Crawford would beat Spence as easily as he did, and I never thought Ruiz would stop AJ. Boxing like all sports can be very hard to predict. Great post though, it’s nice to see some humility and honesty.
We would all have to agree on the interpretations of levels and the ideas and constructs that pad the interpretations of "levels" out. It's like talking about P4P. Anyhow, referring to your questions and enquiries, the main point for me is the state of your awareness in the ring and the quality of the information been processed and acquired.
